PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Big Trial
By Ralph Cipriano
for Bigtrial.net
The Pennsylvania state Supreme Court today reversed the decision by a lower court to overturn the conviction of Msgr. William J. Lynn of a single charge of endangering the welfare of a child.
On July 24, 2012, a Philadelphia Common Pleas jury convicted Lynn of endangering the welfare of a child, namely a former 10-year-old altar boy dubbed “Billy Doe” by a grand jury. Lynn, the former secretary for clergy for the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, became the first Catholic administrator in the country to go to jail for failing to adequately supervise a sexually abusive priest. He was sentenced to a prison term of 3 to 6 years.
Lynn had served 18 months of his sentence on Dec. 26, 2013, when a panel of three state Superior Court judges unanimously reversed the monsignor’s conviction and ordered that he be “released forthwith.” The trial judge in the case, M. Teresa Sarmina, however, refused to allow Lynn’s release. For the past 14 months, the monsignor has been held under house arrest in a Northeast Philadelphia rectory and must wear an electronic ankle monitoring bracelet at all times.
The 60-page opinion by the state Supreme Court doesn’t automatically mean that the monsignor is headed back to jail to serve the remainder of his sentence. Lynn’s lawyers will now proceed with an appeal to state Superior Court on several remaining trial issues such as whether Lynn got a fair trial in a case where Judge Sarmina let in 21 supplemental cases of child abuse dating back to before the monsignor was born.
The district attorney, however, could preclude that appeal process by filing a motion with Judge Sarmina to revoke Lynn’s bail. If the D.A. does file that motion to revoke bail, based on Judge Sarmina’s previously demonstrated antipathy to Lynn, the monsignor had better have his toothbrush packed.
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